Friday, July 25, 2014

Kafka, Before the Law, read by Orson Welles

4 comments:

I see many interesting connections between this piece and Judaism. Underneath that tradition, the law is the pathway to God who is the source of ultimate knowledge and truth. On the other hand, this piece suggests that gods are guardians of the law, which is the actual source of knowledge and truth.

It's absolutely fascinating that he suggests that the text can be taken as a nightmare. Indeed, the idea that we can spend our entire lives searching for the truth and not being allowed to know it is truly terrifying.

I think the connection between the scenes and the narratives is perfect. The relationship between Law and God and thetopic of religion are often eternal but extremely worth considering.

Some photos displayed in this video may not only represent the sense of the narratives but gave people a sense of mystery as well, being reasonable while describing religious topic.

I am currently taking the film 25B class and find some interesting connections between this video and some b&w films during the 1930s at Japan. Directors including Mizoguchi and Ozu used similar methods to describe the Japanese society. Though those movies may not talk about such serious topics like law, they still revealed a unique perspective and make me felt revelant.

I agree with @ Leah. I do see many parallels between this story and Judaism where there was but one chosen person to be allowed access to the the law.

I think it's interesting though that the man's teachings that "the law is supposed to be accessible to everyone" turned out to be a falsehood in this text. When the god tells him that no one else could have entered the door and that the door was intended only for him, I think that he wasn't allowed to enter the door because he asked permission from the god. If this man knew that the law was supposed to be accessible to anyone, he probably shouldn't have asked for permission to get in and he might have been allowed to enter...even though he was warned not to enter without permission. I think the point was that he shouldn't have asked.It was a test? That's my take for now.

Orson Welles has a very distinctive voice and a memorable delivery. I still remember listening to War of the Worlds (radio drama) as a child and understanding even then why there was panic during the original broadcast. Even though, I watched Citizen Kane when I was barely ten, to this day I remember the final scene of Citizen Kane as the Rosebud is burnt to nothingness and feeling the loss of connection as we see the “No Trespassing” sign.

So, I watched this clip with much anticipation and I was not disappointed. In less than three minutes, we are the chilled to the bone by the struggle of the man who is looking to gain admittance to the law, especially when we quickly realize that the old man is us.